
Sophus Ruge (26 March 1831 – 23 December 1903) was a German geographer and historian, he studied about European discoveries and written works about Portuguese discoveries. His studies was a different vision on one traditionally followed in Portugal, he had translated a large part from Portuguese and had been influential in the development of Portuguese historiography.
Biography
Ruge was born in the Frisian town of
Dorum
Dorum is a village and a former municipality in the Cuxhaven (district), district of Cuxhaven, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 January 2015 it has been part of the municipality Wurster Nordseeküste.
The ''Land of Wursten'', a somewhat autono ...
located near
Geestemünde
Bremerhaven (; ) is a city on the east bank of the Weser estuary in northern Germany. It forms an exclave of the Bremen (state), city-state of Bremen. The Geeste (river), River Geeste flows through the city before emptying into the Weser.
Brem ...
in the
Kingdom of Hanover
The Kingdom of Hanover () was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Hanover, and j ...
. His father of Christoph August Ruge (1790–1834) was from
Neuhaus/Oste and was a doctor in medicine. During the
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium), marking the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The French Imperial Army (1804–1815), Frenc ...
, he was an English field doctor, he later moved to
Cuxhaven
Cuxhaven (; ) is a town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven has a footprint o ...
and in 1817, he was physician in Dorum, there he later married the lawyer's daughter Elise Hennings (1804–?). Ruge later studied in
Göttingen
Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...
and
Halle. In 1872, he became professor in geography and ethnography at the
Technische Hochschule de Dresden (Dresden Technical High School) where he headed until his death.
He later married Anna Caecilie Busse (1830–1903) and had children including Frieda Elisa (1860–?), Reinhold Friedrich (1862–?), Walther Karl Theodor (1865–?, geographer) and Elsbeth Sophie (1870–?).
He took charge of producing the second edition of the review and enlarged ''Geschichte der Erdkunde '', by Peschel, published in 1887 which he earned him a recognition and consideration of geographers and historians of the time. One work that was most personal ''Geschichte des Zeitalters des Entdeckungen'' (''History During the Age of Discovery''), made between 1881 and 1883 in the Oncken Collection, enshrined his reputation as a geography historian.
['']Annales de Géographie
Annals are a concise form of historical writing which record events chronologically, year by year. The equivalent word in Latin and French is ''annales'', which is used untranslated in English in various contexts.
List of works with titles contai ...
'' (''Annals of Geography''), 1904, vol; 13, no. 68
Ruge started to revise and actualized numerous works about its essays. In 1878, he published ''Die Geschichte der Erdkunde'' (''History of Geography''), founded by
Oscar Peschel
Oscar Ferdinand Peschel (17 March 1826, Dresden – 13 August 1875, Leipzig) was a German geographer and anthropologist.
Biography
As the son of an officer and teacher at the local military school, Peschel studied law from 1845 to 1848 in L ...
and in 1887, ''Die Erdbeschreibung'' (''Description of the Land'') founded by
Franz Heinrich Ungewitter.
He published numerous works, published a large numerous of books related to geographic history, it includes an important study from 1903 about Portuguese discoveries in Africa as well as the Azores.
He was one of the most listened critics in the area of historiography of European expansion, with the notable erudition on the security of his options. He intensely contributed to periodicals including ''Petermanns Mittelungen'' and ''Jahrbuch de Wagner'' (''Wagner Yearbook''), where he left and important scattered contribution.
In 1863, he founded the
Dresden Geographic Society (''Dresdner Verein für Erdkunde'') alongside
Karl Andree
Karl Andree (20 October 1808 – 10 August 1875) was a German geographer, publicist and consul.
Biography
Andree was born in Braunschweig. He was educated at Jena, Göttingen, and Berlin in historical science. After having been implicated in ...
(sometimes as Karl Andrée), which he headed for around three decades. He was also member of the ''Kgl. Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig'' (''Kingdom of Saxony Academy of Sciences of Leipzig'') and the ''
Saxon Academy of Sciences
The Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig () is an institute which was founded in 1846 under the name ''Royal Saxon Society for the Sciences'' ().
Notable people
* Kurt Aland
* Annette Beck-Sickinger
* Walther Bothe
* Alexander Car ...
'' (''Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschafte'') and many other geographic societies in Germany and abroad.
Prof. Dr. Sophus Ruge died on 23 December 1903 at the age of 72 in
Klotzsche
Klotzsche is a borough ('' Stadtbezirk'') of Dresden, Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its ...
, near Dresden. He was later buried at
Alten Friedhof Klotzsche (Old Klotzsche Cemetery).
In
Dresdner Sudvörstadt, a street named Rugestraße (''Rugestrasse'') is named for him.
Works
* ''Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen'' (Berlin 1881–83)
* ''Abhandlungen und Vorträge zur Geschichte der Erdkunde'' (Dresden 1888)
* ''Historia da Época dos descobrimentos'', Portuguese version of the review versão portugueza revista, ampliada e instruída com numerosas notas relativas á epopeia maritima portugueza por Manuel d'Oliveira Ramos, Aillaud e Bertrand, Lisboa, 1927.
* '' História da época dos descobrimentos'', translation and preface by Manuel d'Oliveira, Aillaud end Bertrand, Lisbon, 1900.
* ''Columbus'', Hofmann & Co., Berlim, 1902.
* ''Die Entwicklung der Kartographie von Amerika bis 1570'', Nachdruck Hildesheim/Nieuwkoop 1962 d. Ausg., Gotha, 1892.
* ''Kleine Geographie. Für die untere Lehrstufe in drei Jahreskursen. Erster Jahreskursus: Deutschland'', G. Schönfeld´s Verlagsbuchhandlung, Dresden, 1877.
* ''Norwegen: Land und Leute – Monographien zur Erdkunde in Verbindung mit hervorragenden Fachgelehrten herausgegeben von A.Scobel'', vol. III, Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld/Leipzig, 1899.
* ''Dresden und die Sächsische Schweiz'' (''Dresden and Saxon Switzerland''), Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld und Leipzig, 1903.
* ''Die Entdeckungsgeschichte der Neuen Welt'', 1892.
* ''Die erste Landesvermessung des Kurstaates Sachsen von Matthias Oeder'', 1889.
* ''Columbus'', Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Columbus, October 1892.
* ''Die Entdeckung der Azoren'' (''Discovery of the Azores''), pp. 149–180 (esp. 178–179), ''27th Jahresbericht des Vereins für Erdkunde'', Dresden, 1901.
References
Further reading
*E. G. R., ''Obituary: Sophus Ruge (1831–1903)'', ''The Geographical Journal'', Vol. 23, No. 3 (Mar., 1904), p. 396.
*Henry Vignaud, ''Sophus ruge et ses vues sur Colomb'', ''Journal de la Société des américanistes de Paris'', n.°spécial, p. 7–14, Paris, 1906.
External links
Works by Sophus Regeat the
German National Library
The German National Library (DNB; ) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to collect, permanently archive, comprehens ...
Necrology of Sophus Ruge
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruge Sophus
1831 births
1903 deaths
People from the Kingdom of Hanover
German geographers
19th-century German historians